Constipation is common in childhood. It affects around 5-30% of the child population, depending on the criteria used for diagnosis.

Symptoms become chronic in more than one third of patients, and constipation is a common reason for referral to secondary care.

November 2011: There has been a change to the text of the full guideline in the introduction on Psychological Interventions (Section 5.5). The deleted sentences were not supported by the references cited and so it was felt best to remove them. This has not impacted on any of the recommendations within the guideline.